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Music as Poetry 1452 Views


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Description:

We'd like to read heavy metal poetry.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:07

Music as Poetry, a la Shmoop. The next time you're hanging out with your

00:12

friends at a karaoke bar...

00:13

...we recommend you blowing them all away with this little ditty.

00:19

Okay, so maybe music and poetry aren't exactly interchangeable.

00:25

We also can't really picture Maya Angelou rocking out at an open mic night.

00:29

However, the connection between music and poetry is undeniable.

00:34

If given some words on a page, you might often be hard-pressed to say whether you're looking

00:38

at a poem or song lyrics. So why are these two... brothers from the

00:42

same mother? Well, first of all... the resemblance is striking.

00:46

The lines are short, as opposed to lines of prose, or dialogue in a script...

00:51

...in both lyrics and poetry, the "Enter" key gets quite a workout.

00:56

Very often... although not always... there will be a rhyming scheme...

01:00

In fact, poems and song lyrics are about the only two things in the world that rhyme.

01:09

Well... and creative trolls who demand you solve their riddles before allowing you access

01:13

to their bridge.

01:21

Even if you come across a piece that doesn't rhyme...

01:24

...it will at the very least have rhythm.

01:27

It might flow smoothly from one line to the next, it might be made up of short, staccato

01:32

lines...

01:33

...but no matter what, it will feel like there is some kind of beat underneath the words

01:38

you are reading. Or singing.

01:38

You know... something you could dance to. But there's also... and perhaps most importantly...

01:42

the meaning behind the words.

01:46

Poetry and music come at language from a pretty similar angle.

01:49

They look at words as tools that can be used to evoke an emotional response.

01:55

Exactly what kind of emotional response depends on the poem or song...

01:59

...but as long as it is making the reader-slash-listener think or feel something, it has done its job.

02:08

Want a famous example of the interplay between poetry and song?

02:12

Ever hear of the musical Cats?

02:17

It's one of the most popular Broadway musicals of all time...

02:18

...and the songs are all taken directly from poems written by T.S. Eliot.

02:23

Although... he probably never pictured all of the gaudy costumes.

02:28

The next time you're reading a poem, imagine it as a song.

02:31

Likewise, the next time you're listening to a piece of music, think about what effect

02:35

it would have if it were merely words on a page.

02:38

Taylor Swift and Robert Browning have more in common that you may realize.

02:44

They even sported the same hairdo for a while.

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